The pandemic has changed a lot of things. In India, where festivals are an integral part of our culture, COVID-19 is even changing the way we celebrate our festivals and how we perform our rituals. Going back to normal seems like a long distant dream now. The government is trying its best to make sure that the virus doesn’t spread anymore so we can avoid the third wave. But in times of festivals, such as now, when Dussehra, Diwali, and Durga Puja are around the corner, it becomes extremely difficult to manage the crowd.
Challenges Faced by the Government
People participate in such gatherings in huge numbers, and hence the chances of COVID to spread increase. Durga Puja is the closest festival which is celebrated with great pomp and show in West Bengal. The faith in God overpowers the fear of COVID. It is evident from the number of people who participated in Ganesha Visarjan in Maharashtra. Here are some of the main challenges faced by the West Bengal government related to Durga Puja:
- The government has to train the priests in various stages of seniority about the Covid-19 safety guidelines during Durga Puja that is going to take place in October. It needs to train them on how to perform various rituals incorporating the protocol.
- It needs to manage the big crowds at pandals and markets.
- Masks are mandatory in public places, but we can’t perform puja wearing it. They need to tackle this challenge, too, by finding its solution.
- It must also make available some crash courses to brush up their chanting skills since many of them have newly joined the profession. Training in the tomes of COVID is not an easy task.
- The government also needs to ensure that the entire place is sanitized and people are fully vaccinated.
In a festival like Durga Puja, the most crowded part is the inside of the pandal, where we place the idol, and the priest performs the rituals. It makes it crucial for the priests to have the correct understanding of the safety guidelines not only for their own safety but also for the visitors’.
Last year, we had a fixed number of people who could enter the pandal to offer Anjali at a given point in time. Manually taking care of this number is a challenging task. Also, the number of Durga Pujas in the city and its suburbs is never-ending. It takes place in various communities and housing societies.
TYMEYT’s Role in Managing Social Gatherings at Durga Puja
TYMEYT is a scheduling software meant to manage foot traffic in real-time as per the social distancing laws in your area. This app makes use of the Pandefuse algorithm to monitor ever-changing compliance with health conditions, i.e., a long-term solution to health crisis preparedness.
TYMEYT allows you to book appointments and schedule services using its in-built logic and acts as your full-service digital safety partner. Its in-built logic helps you maintain social distance based on the pandemic intensity in your geographic area. Not only this, but TYMEYT brings user safety first and allows you to service a healthy flow of people while following the COVID rules.
Here is how the West Bengal government can harness TYMEYT to get a strategic advantage over COVID:
- TYMEYT can be used to manage the crowd footprint and pandal hoping to avoid the high risk of spreading the virus.
- TYMEYT can offer a free solution to enable everyone to land up in pandals in a disciplined manner if full cooperation from the puja committee is there.
- TYMEYT can help manage a million-size crowd using technology with proper physical distancing.
- TYMEYT mitigates infection risk by helping you stay updated with the current pandemic environment with Pandefuse’s real-time intelligence. You get live foot traffic data that helps in smart and quick decision-making.
Endnote
With the introduction of its new variants and strains, COIVD is getting stronger day by day. It is only a matter of time that the third wave is here in India. To avoid that, we need to use tech-based solutions like TYMEYT that can help us avoid such situations.
TYMEYT brings the trust of Pandefuse technology and helps monitor social distancing regulations and live-stream the crowd at gatherings like Durga Puja. With such information at hand, we can make better decisions and tackle the COVID-19 efficiently.
